2012-11-16 By Richard Weitz In addition to their security concerns, Russian officials are eager to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula and prevent abrupt regime collapse in the North in order to achieve their economic objective of greater integration with the prosperous East Asian region. Russians hope that closer ties would…
2012-11-14 by Richard Weitz The August 2008 Georgia War created an opening for Serdyukov and his team to pursue more radical military reforms. In addition to inadequate communications and other technical problems with defense equipment, these shortcomings included cumbersome command arrangements, low unit readiness, and poor leadership throughout the chain…
2012-11-13 by Richard Weitz Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision last week to remove Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Chief of Staff Army-General Nikolai Makarov, and other senior Russian defense officials and officers is an important development. And it could have a major impact on Russia’s military reform program as well as…
2012-10-27 By Richard Weitz In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the leaders of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, supported various measures to preserve economic, security, and other ties with the other former Soviet republics. Uzbekistan was a founding signer…
10/20/12 by Richard Weitz Although less well known than Kazakhstan, the government of Uzbekistan also has strong nuclear nonproliferation credentials. The country’s leaders have accepted the legally binding arms control obligations of the former USSR, acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapons state, worked with the U.S.…
2012-10-11 by Richard Weitz The Russian speakers at the 2012 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference strongly backed universal ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), and chastised the U.S. Senate for failing to ratify it. But Russia’s position regarding the CTBT is more complex than commonly presumed. The Russian Federation signed the…
2012-10-03 by Richard Weitz According to the Russian media, the Azerbaijani government is about to renew Russia’s lease of a radar station at Gabala in Azerbaijan. The station, built in 1985, can detect missile launches at a distance up to 6,000 kilometers, or much of the Middle East. The became…
2012-09-23 by Richard Weitz Given the statements of the Russian speakers at the 2012 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference, Moscow is laying down some tough if often understandable conditions for making further progress in nuclear arms control. Thanks to the Carnegie Corporation in New York, I had the opportunity to attend and…
